The Story of My Experiments with Truth · Chapter
End of Kheda Satyagraha explained
The Kheda Satyagraha campaign concludes unexpectedly when the Mamlatdar of Nadiad Taluk offers to suspend payments for poorer Patidars if the well-to-do pay up.
What happens
The Kheda Satyagraha campaign concludes unexpectedly when the Mamlatdar of Nadiad Taluk offers to suspend payments for poorer Patidars if the well-to-do pay up. Gandhi secures a written undertaking and confirms with the Collector that the suspension applies district-wide. Though the people celebrate it as a triumph, Gandhi is dissatisfied because the settlement lacks grace, the poor hardly benefit, and the satyagrahis do not emerge stronger. However, the campaign has lasting indirect results: it awakens Gujarat's peasants, gives educated workers contact with rural life, reveals Vallabhbhai Patel's leadership, and firmly roots satyagraha in Gujarat.
Themes in this chapter
Nonviolence and Satyagraha
The chapter reflects on the principles of satyagraha, emphasizing that a worthy end leaves satyagrahis stronger and more spirited, and that the campaign rooted satyagraha in Gujarat's soil.
Social Justice and Anti-Colonialism
The Kheda Satyagraha is a struggle for economic justice for peasants against colonial revenue policies, leading to political education and awakening.
Service and Community Leadership
The campaign compelled educated public workers to identify with peasants, increasing their capacity for sacrifice and community service, exemplified by Vallabhbhai Patel's emergence.
Characters to notice
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Leads the Kheda Satyagraha and negotiates its end; expresses dissatisfaction with the settlement's lack of grace but acknowledges the campaign's lasting impact.
- Vallabhbhai Patel
Found himself during the Kheda campaign, demonstrating capacity for sacrifice and leadership, later evident in flood relief and Bardoli Satyagraha.
- Mrs. Besant
Her Home Rule agitation is noted as having touched the peasants prior to the Kheda campaign.
Key passages
“The end of a satyagraha campaign can be described as worthy, only when it leaves the satyagrahis stronger and more spirited than they are in the beginning.”
A satyagraha campaign is truly successful only if it leaves its participants more empowered and determined than when they started.
Gandhi's criterion for evaluating the moral and practical success of nonviolent resistance.
“The Kheda Satyagraha marks the beginning of an awakening among the peasants of Gujarat, the beginning of their true political education.”
The Kheda campaign initiated a political consciousness and education among Gujarat's peasantry.
Gandhi highlights the long-term transformative effect of the campaign beyond its immediate outcome.